Rekindling your garden romance

Penny Carnathan

Thursday

May 31, 2012 at 12:01 AMMay 31, 2012 at 11:55 AM

I've never before looked at my garden and thought, "You just don't turn me on anymore." The realization hit me hard, and I immediately started rearranging containers, hiding scraggly spiderwort and declining hollyhocks under the cuttings table and splurging on new yard art.

I'm bored. And oh, how it hurts.

I've never before looked at my garden and thought, "You just don't turn me on anymore." The realization hit me hard, and I immediately started rearranging containers, hiding scraggly spiderwort and declining hollyhocks under the cuttings table and splurging on new yard art.

Out in Odessa, Becky Perry is seeing nothing but "predictable" after a visit to her niece's spread in Maryland. "Florida is so ... FLAT," she complained.

In times like these, I turn to other local gardeners for help. As usual, they didn't disappoint. If you've got the doldrums, or want to prevent them, listen up!

Several gardeners said that growing vegetables always makes for exciting new finds. (And I'm sure they're not just talking tomato hornworms!)

Brittany Aukett is a Tampa urban farmer at organic-gardening-adventures.blogspot.com: "Working with vegetables, you're always in motion and always changing. One season you plant one way, the next you plant a different way," she says.

1. Remove all accessories to one area and consider the "bones" of the landscape. (Hmm, my bones are all the shrubs I did right, the perfectly placed garden swing, the little pond my brother dug for me on a very hot summer afternoon. They may be ho-hum now, but we've been together for years. Change? I couldn't. Next?)

2. Choose plants that will bloom in succession from one season to another. (Ah! Definitely need more May bloomers!)

3. Plant like plants in uneven numbers –– one, three, five, seven. So, instead of buying just one of those heat-loving foxtail ferns, get three –– or five –– and plant them near one another to make a big visual impact. (I learned this the hard way. She's right! If the plant is new to you, buy one, see how it does, and multiply by propagating through seeds or cuttings, if possible.)

I love this perfectly lazy –– and inspiring –– idea from Janice Vogt of Seminole Heights, who blogs at gracefulcottagegardening.blogspot.com:

"Go buy Flea Market Gardening Magazine. ... Get the magazine and a bottle of wine."

Thank you, Janice, for turning me onto this new annual publication now in its second year. The 2012 edition promises 379 bargain ideas for your garden. It sells for $12.99 on Amazon.com, but it's also supposed to be available anywhere that sells magazines. If you can't find it, call 212-462-9624 to order a copy –– no subscriptions available yet.

As for the wine? I recommend a nice, chilled Riesling. It's perfect after a hot afternoon of planting.

A few people mentioned the caladiums now coloring their beds. (See No. 4 under Cynthia DeBoer –– foliage can be as pretty as flowers.) I've planted some caladiums, but they're bulbs! When they disappear, as bulb plants do, I forget about them and put new stuff in those empty spots. I need a better plan.

"My caladiums right now just blow me away," Janice says.

Cynthia "Meems" Glover of Tampa, who raves about caladiums on her blog, hoeandshovel.com, says they're her favorites, but not the only plants she relies on in May.

"Pentas, gaura, roses, salvias, coral honeysuckle, hydrangeas ... and colocasias, gingers and caladiums are sprouting out of the ground at rapid speed," she says.